Hello Gearslutz, first post here after having looked at this forum for years

I'm in the middle of building a new production room, i mainly, if not only "just" produce edm music, with few if any vocals and or acoustic instruments, there will be a room for that within the complex, so i decided not to build one!

The new studio complex i am moving to require me to build a room-inside-a-room due to neighbors, which is really exciting to me as i get to build something new

However, my experience when it comes to acoustics is fairly limited, i got some bass traps and such from my old studio, but i think i want to start all over from scratch!

So, here's some questions i have regarding this.

The room will be about 3m W, 5m L and 3m T which gives me about 45 square meters of air, and 15 square meters of floor

I'll build about 10 bass traps, one for each corner behind the monitors, top top bottom, one skyline cloud, 2 straight behind the monitors as well as 1 on each side to the left - right of the monitors.

Here's a very basic scetch, i'm sorry for not taking more time to make a visually appealing one!

1. Are the bass traps position good or bad, from what i've read i understand this is "optimal"
2. Do i need more than one "cloud"
3. Is a whole wall of diffusion a good idea? Or would just a few, let's say two 1x1 meter diffusions be enough?
4. How far would i want to keep the monitors from the back wall for great performance? (genelec 8040 & krk 8)
5. Would the couch do more good than bad?
6 Do i need bass traps at the rear wall?
7. what do i need to think about when building the room it self? i heard 50 cm between the inner and outer wall is great!
8. do i need to make the room "float" on a thin layer of oil, or other liquid,
9 would it be better to build a asymetrical room, or would a symetrical room do good. If a asymetrical room is better, how much better as in is it worth it?

While i do want it all to sound as good as possible, optimal 100% perfect conditions are not required, i'll rather spend my time finishing tracks vs chasing the perfect sound, i travel a lot as an artist, so this wont be my every day work place either, all i really need is the sound to be as honest as it can be within reasonable parameters.

Suggestions are very welcome, i understand this is all very unclear. so i ask for your understanding, also. i understand all this info is googlable, and belive me i tried. But it's just WAY to much info out there, and a lot of it differ.

Before deciding on the dimension of the room; read up on modal spacing and why this is important. You also need to read up some more on how to do a room-in-room construction. Mass, air-gap between the two (not three, search for “triple leaf effect” to learn more) walls, and decoupling is very important.

Once you´ve finished the room in room construction, but before you start to treat internally:

Just one question, how bad can things go if not measured and prepared properly? Because as much as id like it to sound as good as it possibly can, i know i will just get WAY to obsessed about acoustics and likeminded themes. Rendering me away from actually producing music. Which wont put any bread on the table

Basicly, i don't want to go down the studio building rabithole, i currently put a ban on myself buying various hardware

Just one question, how bad can things go if not measured and prepared properly? Because as much as id like it to sound as good as it possibly can, i know i will just get WAY to obsessed about acoustics and likeminded themes. Rendering me away from actually producing music. Which wont put any bread on the table

Basicly, i don't want to go down the studio building rabithole, i currently put a ban on myself buying various hardware

Well, it really depends on how much you study the topic before you start to treat. Worst case scenario is that you end up with a room that´s only treated with thin broadband absorbers and thus will suffer from modal havoc and a very dry sounding high range and the early reflections are only “EQed” and are thus still present but lacking the highs.

I would suggest that you either prepare to spend some time reading up on the topic and learn how to make measurements, or alternatively; hire an acoustician. The latter is not a big expense assuming you´re prepared to do the actual construction yourself and it´s often not more expensive that buying readymade panels and then you also know that the added treatment is correct (assuming the acoustician hired knows what he´s doing … ).

Ok, i think i'll contact a pro then, problem with reading online is that there is about 7689325 articles on each subject, and as we all know. People like to disagree for the sake of disagreeing/proving they are right

Also, time is money, and on such a wide area, that would cost me way more than to just get someone else to do the measurements for me

Thanks for the fast replies, i'll make sure to start a new thread once i start building

Ok, i think i'll contact a pro then, problem with reading online is that there is about 7689325 articles on each subject, and as we all know. People like to disagree for the sake of disagreeing/proving they are right

Also, time is money, and on such a wide area, that would cost me way more than to just get someone else to do the measurements for me

Thanks for the fast replies, i'll make sure to start a new thread once i start building

Cheers

There is an acoustics reference sticky at the top of the forum with recommended reading.